Phone: 317-846-6601 Fax: 317-575-4244 Website: www.ihsaa.org
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November 27, 2004
Roncalli
scored 35 unanswered points across the second and third quarters and claimed
its third 4A title in a row and state record eighth championship in a 35-10
triumph over Wawasee at RCA Dome in
With the
victory, Roncalli (13-2) broke a three-way tie with
Ben Davis and Indianapolis Bishop Chatard with seven
titles each. It also handed 15th-year Roncalli
coach Bruce Scifres his sixth championship moving him
into a tie for second place among his peers and marked the Rebels 18th
consecutive post-season victory.
After
falling behind 10-0 to start the game, Roncalli’s defense
forced three turnovers in the middle two quarters and the offense kicked into
high gear.
After recovering the opening kickoff, Wawasee (13-2)
got on the board first on Ben Champoux’s 31 yard
field goal for a 3-0 lead. The Warriors took a 10-0 lead on quarterback Kory Lantz’s keeper for 13 yards with
The Rebels scored twice in three minutes time to wrestle the lead away. Following
Wawasee’s touchdown drive, Zac
Kidwell’s 44 yard burst up the left side with
Roncalli scored three more times in
the third quarter starting with Kidwell’s 30 yard reception from Hasty with
The Warriors, making their second appearance in the state finals, were
coached by Joe Rietveld. The game was also rematch of sorts from
past years when Roncalli claimed a 37-3 victory in
the 1985 3A championship, the second year the finals were played in the Dome.
Class 4A State Finals Records Tied
Most
Passing Touchdowns by a Team– 3 by Roncalli
Most TD
Receptions – 3 by Roncalli
Most TD
Passes – 3 by Andrew Hasty, Roncalli
Most PAT
Kicks – 5 by Tim Curren, Roncalli
Kory Lantz of Wawasee Named Mental
Attitude Award Winner
Kory Lantz of
At
the conclusion of each state championship game, the IHSAA Executive Committee
presents the award to an outstanding senior participant in the football state
tournament. The recipient of the award,
who was nominated by his principal and coach, must excel in mental attitude,
scholarship, leadership and athletic ability. The award is named in honor of
the third commissioner of the IHSAA who served from 1962 to 1976 and oversaw
the beginning of the state football tournament.
Academically, Kory ranks 14th
in his class of 226, while pursuing an honors curriculum. A member of the National Honor Society, he
has not made his collegiate choice, but will major in Exercise Science.
His
school involvement includes IMPACT Student Leader, Student Council and Art
Club. He is also active in youth
ministry, Crosstraining for Life and Lancer Camp. He traveled to the
In
addition to being a three-year starter on the football squad, Kory is also a member of the school basketball team, where
he has started every game since his freshman season. Last year, he led the team in scoring, with a
14.8 average, and in assists with a 4.3 average.
He
is the son of Cindi and Mark Lantz of
He
becomes the second player from Wawasee to claim the
mental attitude award in football. The other Warrior was Brad Traviolia in 1985.
Farm
Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA corporate partner, presented a $1,000.00 scholarship
to
Team Posters And
Individual Action Photographs Available
Visit 20-20 Photographic, the IHSAA’s photographer and the
For
t-shirts and other merchandise commemorating this year’s tournament or for any
of our events, visit our friends at Morris, Inc.
State Finals Programs Available
Couldn’t be
in Indy for the state finals? You can still purchase a copy of the official
souvenir program while supplies last! Programs are $3.00 if you purchase in
person at the IHSAA Office (
Class 4A Game Quotes
Roncalli coach Bruce Scifres
(On winning
multiple state titles) “It doesn’t get old at all. Each team has its own personality. Every senior class has their own team
chemistry that they create. I always
say, the team goes as the seniors go. To
have made it here three years in row and won it three years in a row…they’re an
awesome group of young men and I’m very proud of them.”
“We are
certainly battle-tested. The previous
three games came right down to the wire.
We were able to put together drives in the last minutes of the game to
pull them out. Tonight, we were behind
but the kids never lost focus despite a couple of mistakes early on and I’m
very pleased we were able to fight back.
You take away the first half of the first quarter and we played very,
very good football.”
“Coming
indoors to a facility like this, kids tend to get gassed a little earlier than
normal. We wanted to use Jason (Werner)
as much as we could on offense but not at the risk of taking away from his
performance on defense. We just tried to
use him (Werner) here and there, but when we did he just came through huge for
us.”
“They (Wawasee) were stacked up in there. They were doing a nice job of defending our
run. On many occasions they had eight,
nine and even 10 men in the box defending against our running game. We noticed they were leaving some things open
over the top of the defense. Andrew
Hasty put the ball where it needed to be and our receivers made some great catches. That turned the ballgame around. You have to give Wawasee
credit, they played some great run defense that made
it very challenging to run the ball.”
(On #24
Jason Werner) “Jason Werner is a phenomenal athlete…he can do it all. As phenomenal of an athlete he is, he is an
even better kid. We knew he was going to
be able to do some pretty special things, with his speed, on the turf. He has as much going for him as anybody to
earn the Mr. Football award. He is a
great football player.”
Wawasee coachJoe Rietveld
“Roncalli is a good football team and tonight they were
better than we were.”
“We knew if
we shut down their sweep we would do something good. We did that but we couldn’t
defend the long pass. A lot of that was because (Roncalli’s)
Jason Werner is a good receiver.”
“In the
last three weeks we haven’t played a team that throws the ball much. We were a
little worried about that. Our defensive backs had it tough to play against a
talented team like Roncalli. And
especially to play against a receiver like Jason Werner.”
“We never
to get our defense established and get anything going consistently. They wore
us down as the game went on and got us out of our routine. A big difference was
they had some big plays with the pass.”
“We played
hard and came out to win but it just didn’t happen. They have a pretty good
defense. They were able to keep us from running the ball effectively and they
played us pretty tight against the pass. When you can do both
things, that’s a pretty good defense.”
(On Kory Lantz winning the Eskew
Mental Attitude Award) “He’s very deserving. He’s first class in everything he
does on or off the field.”